Risk Being Foolish

He also was at Proctors tonight to be both the guest of honor and an inductee into the Capital Region Entertainment Hall of Fame. Other inductees included Maureen O’Sullivan, Bruce Jordan and Marilyn Abrams (creators of Sheer Madness) and the gaming company, Vicarious Visions (creators of Guitar Hero, among others).

Gregory McGuire also described the creative process as “to risk being foolish.”

“Let others convince you that you are not,” he added.

What a great way to capture the process of making. It could be writing a book, designing the next video game, acting a new part, creating a play, designing a building or imagining a new healthcare system.

If you don’t risk being foolish, how could you possibly be creating something new? If you already know that an idea will be successful and accepted, then it must be because it has already existed and does not stretch any boundaries. If you don’t awkwardly begin to dance en pointe, you will never successfully do so.

Two different teachers who attended the Gala and Induction wrote it down to put it on the wall of their classrooms on Monday. To learn, to push, to stretch, to grow there must be risk.